BOSSES at a Hull bath manufacturer are fighting to save its workforce after it was forced to close.
Reva Industries Ltd fell into administration earlier this year but has now ceased production – putting a total of 60 jobs at risk.
However, the firm is hopeful of saving a third of those threatened jobs by transferring them to a HLD Group sister company in Bradford.
Managing director Gary Stevens said the company did everything it could to keep the site open.
He said: "Unfortunately, we were forced into administration earlier in the year and now we have been forced to close.
"The Hull site was the least profitable of its kind in the group so it was almost inevitable.
"We have informed 60 employees whose jobs are at risk and we have entered a consultation period.
"It is possible about 20 of the jobs could be saved and moved to Bradford, but it is too early to say."
Reva Industries, based in Rotterdam Road on Sutton Fields Industrial Estate, began the consultation process with workers on Friday.
One male worker, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was devastated by the announcement.
He said: "With all the bad news of companies closing and jobs being lost, you always worry if it will happen to you but you don't expect it, especially at a company that has been around for so long.
"I am gutted, but you can't do anything about it. It's out of our hands."
According to the firm, the 60,000sq ft site is being forced to close due to its operational costs outweighing revenue.
The company specialised in the manufacture of baths for large distributors and bathroom manufacturers but was hampered by a fire, which stopped production in 1998.
As a result, in 1999, there was a danger of the Hull production plant closing altogether until a large UK customer agreed a three-year deal on the proviso that production continued in the UK.
In 2005, the firm's current managing director, Gary Stevens, took Reva through a management buyout.
By 2009, the company had started to produce the Airbath and Appollo bath trade brands and went on to inherit them from their owners when they went into liquidation.
The following year, the firm was taken over by two investors and appeared to be taking the market share within the acrylic bath market.
It then fell into administration in May this year and its assets transferred to the HLD Group.
